David Moyes promised to reprimand Ashley Young after admitting that his player had tried to con the referee to give Manchester United a penalty in an incident that will further worsen the reputation of one of football's serial divers.

Young was shown a yellow card during the first half of United's 2-0 home win against Crystal Palace, featuring goals from Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, who wore a specially designed headband to protect the gashed forehead that kept him out of England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine.

Television replays clearly showed Young jutting out his leg to make sure there was contact with the Palace midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi before throwing himself to the ground. The England international has been lectured, at least once before, by Sir Alex Ferguson because of his repeat offending and Moyes said he would make it clear he did not want to see him do it again.

"I've always said I don't like diving," Moyes said. "Ash has put his leg into the lad's leg. The boy definitely puts his leg out and, rightly so, he deserved to get booked. I don't want my players diving. I don't want anybody doing it. I'll definitely say to Ash it's not what I want."

Young was also involved in the game's other controversy after another challenge from Dikgacoi led to the penalty from which Van Persie opened the scoring, with Dikgacoi sent off in the process. Ian Holloway, the Crystal Palace manager, is serving a two-match touchline ban for criticising referees and was reluctant to talk himself into trouble again. "Emotionally I'm in the right place now. I'd like to keep my money in the bank," he said.

Asked about Young's dive, he said: "I don't like to talk about other people's players. But if you want to come with me to the pub later I will tell you what I really think."

The first contact for Dikgacoi's red card was outside the penalty area and Moyes sympathised with Palace. "When I first saw it I thought it was just outside the box but in real time it was a very difficult decision."

The United manager added: "I don't like the rule that every time someone is the last man they are sent off. If I was Ollie I'd be disappointed. Unfortunately, they are the rules and he was the last man."